I first saw Sunwook Kim at the London Festival back in 2014, where the spotlight was on Seoul in the City. The  festival was  a presentation of Korea’s most talented musicians and performers that were  held at some of London’s iconic venues.

He has been back to London to peform many times since, but this is your chance to see him if you have not had the pleasure. He is taking part later this month in the continuing series Korean Sounds East Meets West concert. The series aims to give the audience a chance to listen to both European and Korean music. Either of similar sentiment, character or purpose, or music from the same historical period.

This will be the second concert in the series and it focuses on the theme of Virtuosity. Virtuosity meaning great skill in music or another artistic pursuit. The first held earlier this year on April 12th had its focus on Spring.

The rest of the teams taking place throughout the year are:

• 2nd August: Space
• 11th October: Love
• 13th December: Dance

The series will look to present traditional Korean music (gugak) alongside Western classical pieces and in doing so will explore what is common in both musical worlds as well as reveal how they differ.

On the 21st June, at Kings Hall, the Virtuosity concert will be performed by Kyoung-A Moon and Hyung-Soo Kang. Moon will perform a Gayageum Sanjo together with  Kang, who will play the drums. In the second half Sunwook Kim will take to the stage to play the  piano, List’s Annees de perleriange II S.161 Italie.

Tickets are available and be purchased via the details below.

When: Wednesday 21 June 2017, 7.30 pm
Where: Kings Place Hall One (90 York way, London, N1 9AG)

Tickets from £9.50 online │Kings Place

Kyoung-A Moon is a master Gayageum musician from the Folk Music Group at the National Gugak Center, she majored in Gayageum at Chonnam National University and then Ajaeng at the Yong In University Graduate School. Since then she has acquired Korea’s Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 72 ‘Jindo Shaman Ritual for Ensemble Music’ and Seoul Intangible Cultural Property No. 39 ‘Ajaeng Sanjo’. Hyung-Soo Kang is a percussionist who is a member of the Folk Music Group at the National Gugak Center. He won the grand prize at the 6th Park Dong-Jin Master Singers and Master Drummers Contest and he is currently working as an assistant for transmitting the value of ‘Pansori Gobub’, Seoul Intangible Cultural Property No. 25.
Kyoung-A Moon gayageum – Korean zither with 12 strings
Hyung-Soo Kang janggu – double-headed drum

Born in Seoul in 1988, SunWook Kim began the piano at the age of three. He gave his debut recital aged just 10, and this was followed by his concerto debut two years later. He graduated from the Korean National University of Arts in February 2008, and then completed an MA in conducting at the Royal Academy of Music. Besides Leeds (2006), international awards include the first prizes at the 2004 Ettlingen Competition (Germany) and the 2005 Clara Haskil Competition (Switzerland). In 2013, SunWook was selected by the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn to become the first beneficiary of its new Mentoring Programme, a status which grants him exclusive access to the house’s unique collections and resources.